The Difficult Second Album

Jerry Seinfeld dressed as Elvis, and "The Death of Rwanda" talk about mixed tones

If the rumours are to be believed; this man could very well be coming back to our screens with a new project at NBC. But how do you follow something as big as Seinfeld? Larry David managed it beautifully with the magnificent Curb Your Enthusiasm and it's that show that Jason Alexander and Julia Louis Dreyfuss have done their best work, neither being able to hit the comedy heights they reached with Seinfeld in their own sitcoms. So can Jerry manage it? I certainly hope so, I love the guy, I even risked being put on a register by turning up to see his kids film Bee Movie in the middle of the afternoon. So best of luck Seinfeld, don't let us down.

Two other big stars who have recently embarked on new projects are Peter Krause and Kelsey Grammer.

Krause was really the main star of the fantastic funeral director drama Six Feet Under (although he also plays Jim Carey's boss in The Truman Show!) and Dirty Sexy Money is really his first drama show since the beautiful season finale. and it's pretty good. Of course, from the opening scenes, I did worry that Krause is carving out a market in playing the man who doesn't want to be like his father but ends up doing his job. But Nick (his character in this.) is a lot more grounded than Nate Fisher, he is a happily married lawyer (Presumably setting up a dramatic fall from grace.) and does a lot of charity work but is seduced into working for the extremely rich family his father spent his life working for, covering up for them etc. The family themselves have a dark secret that we discover at the close of episode 1, forming the driving force of the series; one of them may just very well have killed Nick's dad. It's delightfully trashy, and hugely entertaining and has Donald Sutherland as the patriarch of the family, the scenes between him and Krause are excellent. Dirty Sexy Money hits Channel 4 quite soon, by which time I hope to have watched it all!

I bigged up Frasier last week, and rightfully so, and its star Kelsey Grammer is finally back on TV in Fox's new sitcom Back To You. Grammer plays Chuck Darling, a former local news anchor who has to return to the network that made him a star after a meltdown live on air. This sort of plot could be done in the non-laughter track, meta-tv style of The Office, Curb Your Enthusiasm or Extras or any number of pretenders to the throne of Gervais and David. Thankfully, the script doesn't allow it, this is traditional live studio audience stuff and is actually very very funny. The supporting characters are all excellent, (especially the fantastic Fred
Willard as sports anchor.) and the running will they-wont they? plot between Chuck and co-anchor Kelly is actually engaging much like early Niles and Daphne. It's really refreshing to have a traditional sitcom back on our screens, which doesn't mind a laughter track (Something new BBC sitcom Empty is sorely lacking.) and equally refreshing to have one that's genuinely funny. I leave you with a picture of the legend that is Mr Fred Willard. See ya real soon, ya'll come back now, ya hear?